Biography
Kim Alpert is a Chicago-based media artist and creative strategist whose practice occupies a singular space at the intersection of live video performance, analog synthesis, music, and poetry. Known for performing live improvisational video systems alongside musicians and dancers, Alpert works with a range of material — archival films, home videos, analog synthesis, custom animations — to create visual environments that respond to and extend the sonic context of improvised performance.
Alpert’s multimedia work spans printed material, projections, performances, recordings, installations, and ephemera. A graduate of Full Sail University’s Digital Art & Design program — where she was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2013 — her commercial practice in advertising and branding runs parallel to an artistic practice that is entirely committed to the principles of free improvisation and experimental collaboration.
In performance, Alpert operates as a visual improviser: reading the musical context, responding in real time, building images that complement and extend the sonic environment without illustrating it literally. Her work with Ken Vandermark‘s Momentum series, claire rousay, and performers at the Catalytic Sound Festival demonstrates how visual improvisation can function as a full participant in an improvised musical encounter rather than a decorative supplement.
Her residencies at Chicago Art Department and Signal Culture in New York, and presentations at the Art Institute of Chicago, Walker Art Center, Bimhuis (Amsterdam), and Roulette Intermedium (New York) reflect both the experimental and institutional dimensions of her practice. She is an active member of the Instigation Orchestra, participating in festivals and creating live visuals, environments, and digital media.
As a member of the Catalytic Sound cooperative, Alpert extends the network’s conception of what an artist in an improvised music cooperative can be — not only musicians but visual artists whose practice is fundamentally collaborative and improvisational. Her presence in the cooperative reflects an understanding that the live arts community is a multidisciplinary ecosystem, not a collection of siloed disciplines.
